Monday Thoughts

Weekend Reflections:
CORE was great. Six churches partnered together to serve our communities. We had more than 70 people participate Saturday and Sunday in several work projects. Probably 500 total were involved in the work projects.

Leanne just moved to Mattoon two weeks ago. We washed and detailed her car Saturday. I hope she finds First Assembly or The Crossover as a place to call her church home.

Zach is in and out of Mattoon. I pray he finds a church community to be a part of as he moves in and out of different communities.

The little guy with a flat bike tire. I pray he remembers that Christians helped him out.May he have a positive perception of Christians as he goes through life.

THIS WEEK
I have a big freelance writing assignment due July 2. ...and I'm not done yet.

I speak this Sunday. I have prep to do with that.

I need to gather all the material and theme ideas for Kids Factory.

I need to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Van.

I need to attend a Saturday wedding.

A lot to do.
Tuesday is our office day off.
Friday is a vacation day. hmmm.... lots to do, little time.
(I may be in on Tuesday.)

CORE

CORE
Originally uploaded by travis spencer

My son at the community car wash.

the church has left the building

Today and Sunday we are joining with six churches to serve our community.
CORE: Community OutReach Extravaganza

More than 400 people from six churches are working in food centers, mowing yards, washing cars, building houses, painting, handing out water, helping pack school supplies....and much more.

Sunday: NO CHURCH in the morning because we are serving out in the community.

Sunday evening at 5 p.m. the six churches are gathering together for a celebration service at Charleston High School.

Happy to be serving our community!

a WORD picture

This handy dandy text/design program (http://wordle.net) allows you to cut and paste a bunch of text from something, then it grabs the most used words and creates a "word cloud" out of the text.

From First Assembly's Family Room vision paper


From the Book of John, Chapter 3


Create your own. It takes just a minute to do.
Leave a link to it in my comments section so we can all take a look.

What Bible Do Youeth Readeth?

What Bible translation do you like to read?

Water Wars

We are hosting a one-day faith and family fun day at First Assembly.

Saturday July 12
11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
at First Assembly

Designed for 3 years old - 5th Grade
Parents are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to participate with their kids.

A day of water fun! Bring extra clothes.
Lunch is provided.
Games, activities and creative interactive faith teachings throughout the day.

Family Day

We need a family day.
So we're heading to the zoo.


Follow our day through pictures.
I'll twitpic throughout the day.

Here's Dakota at the zoo in 2005.


What's your favorite animal?

Babies are messy

Feeding my six-month-old son reminds me of baby Jesus followers.


Let me begin by saying "Baby Jesus Followers" doesn't necessarily mean "new" followers. It sometimes means they simply haven't grown up yet.

Some thoughts
1. Babies can't eat on their own. Baby Jesus Followers (BJFs) don't understand and apply all the biblical teachings on their own.

2. Babies smear food all over their face. BJFs are messy with their decisions and choices they make.

3. Babies need spoon fed. BJFs need spiritual mentors to help them get the spiritual nutrition they need.

4. Babies have no table manners. BJFs are slowly learning right from wrong. They still have "bad manners" in several situations.

5. Babies spit up a lot after eating. BJFs can be overwhelmed by heavy teaching and not be able to handle digesting all of it.

6. Babies cry and fuss. BJFs can be immature in their attitudes.

7. Babies need love. BJFs need love.

May we help BJFs grow. May they mature in their journey with Jesus. May we feed them and train them to eventually feed themselves.

1 Corinthians 3: 2
I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger.

Do you have good discipleship resources?

My Mind Map for Sunday

Here's a look at my sermon notes for Sunday.



I decided to use "Mind Mapping" for Sunday.

My Topic
One Prayer: Make us broken
Big Idea: Our hearts need to break for those who don't know Jesus.

Have you heard of One Prayer?

Pray with me....
Make us Broken.
May our hearts be broken for anyone who does not know Jesus.

Raining on the last day of camp.

Raining on the last day of camp.
Originally uploaded by travis spencer

My new look for Wednesday???

I'm thinking about wearing this all day on Wednesday at kids camp.

Yes or No?

going to kids camp

I leave Monday morning to invest in hundreds of Illinois elementary children at a kids' camp.

I just read over my "Team Captain " responsibilities for the week.
Here's a few of them:

• Be at attendance at 7 am staff meetings. (Yikes, pretty early)
• Show and help the KP boys with their duties. (Scrape disgusting food remains into trash.)
• Patrol grounds during day (Ride in golf cart)
• Patrol grounds and close down the activities when instructed by director. (Ride in golf cart.)
• Transport campers to their room after bedtime meds. (Ride in golf cart.)
• Do a quick daily room check to make sure the rooms are not total messes. (hope all toilets are flushed.)

In all serious, I will help a team of counselors invest in hundreds of children. I pray God will help me encourage, coach, and inspire those counselors to invest in their campers this week. I pray God will give me insight and wisdom to make sure hundreds of campers have an incredible experience while at camp. I pray God will do great things in this young generation!

Do you have church camp memories?

My dad's day prayer list

Father's Day is one of our services in the calendar year we are very intentional about reaching out and communicating to a non-church crowd. For this specific Sunday, we want men to realize church is for them, too. (We're bringing in a comedian to communicate the message this Sunday.)

Here's my prayer for Sunday:

• For men to give God a chance at being involved in their lives.
• For dad's to re-evaluate their influence in the home.
• For anyone struggling with alcohol/drug issues to seek God and others or help.
• For wives to be proud of their husbands for simply bringing the family to church.
• For God to draw everyone one in a little closer.
• For a journey with Jesus to seem desirable.
  

Moms, paninis, chocalate, and big dreams

The Family Room: A Day To Dream

I've invited a group of moms to hang out with me for a few hours and dream about the Family Room, a family resource center we are launching in our community. Their perspective will be vital in shaping the direction of this incredible thing.

When people in town think family... I want them thinking of us as the "go-to" guys.

Here's the discussion agenda:

1. What does our community look like?
2. What does our community offer to parents?
3. What are some general concerns parents’ have for their children?
4. How do they meet the needs regarding these concerns?
5. What is missing in our community when it comes to family resources/facilities?
6. Of the concerns in #3, how can they be better addressed?
7. Hear the The Family Room Vision
8. How can we make this a crucial part of our community?
9. What is the mission of the Family Room?
10. How would you explain it in 30 seconds to someone?
11. Begin to dream of it’s:

a. Resources
b. Programming
c. Clientele
d. Hours of operation
e. Atmosphere
f. Partnership with other agencies/organizations
g. People involved
h. Funding

We want to serve the community as a family resource center that informs, equips, and unites parents and families with crucial information and programming to enhance healthy family life and prepare the way for a child's healthy future.

Got ideas? Wanna Partner? Have you seen anything like this before?

Summer gang

the summer gang

And then it hit me...

I've been praying and thinking and reading in regards to my June 22 One Prayer message I'll be preaching at First Assembly.

My one prayer for the church is... Make us broken.

God needs to break our hearts for those who don't know Him in a personal way. We need to hurt for those who walk through life and have no idea they are walking into spiritual emptiness.

How can I be more passionate for the spiritually lost?
How can I truly hurt and be bothered when I realize someone I know is not following and trusting Jesus?

We (the church) say we are about reaching the lost. But are we?

Do I care about other people the way I should?

Then I read Romans 10:1 (MSG)
"Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what's best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time."

Beginning today: 10 minutes of laser-focussed prayer everyday in 2008 targeting my community and its need to know Jesus and his salvation.

Will you join me?

Priorities

I've been asking God to help me prioritize the responsibility of leading an entire church.
Here's what has been knocking on my heart.

Three Priorities of Church Leadership

1. Prayer
We need to pray more. Before making decisions, strategizing over the future, dreaming up innovative concepts and ideas, designing attractive stuff, or simply doing ministry--we must connect to God and tap into the source of all good things.

John 15:5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

2. People
We need to focus on people. We need to filter all our scheduling, time and energy around loving, caring, training, equipping, and building people. We are here because people matter to God. I am a pastor because people need spiritual leadership in their lives. People need to be my passion.

Matthew 9:36 When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

3. Programming
We need to be structured and strategic in our ministry. We need to be intentional and innovative about HOW we best minister to people. Whether it's discipleship, evangelism and outreach, leadership training, follow-up, or creative arts, we need to design programming that will best serve the church in all capacities.

1 Corinthians 14:40 Be sure that everything is done properly and in order.


All three of these components are very important. But it's the order of priority that will determine how effective we are as a church and a leadership team. May we depend on God, love people, and effectively do his work to see Jesus glorified and communities transformed in incredible ways.

Family Water Fun

I'm needing some water activity ideas for a late-summer event for the entire family.

Here's the rough draft idea of the day.
NAME: Mucho Agua
DATE: some Saturday
TIME 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Breakout Schedule
11-11:45 - faith element
noon - lunch
12:30 - 2 p.m. -- water games acivities.

Need ideas for:
1. creative faith element

2. fun food idea

3. water activities/games for the whole family.


Suggestions.... think wild, fun, crazy, creative, wow....

Dear Trash Collector:

Dear men who pick up my trash,

Before you lift the lid to take out the bags of trash from my can, I need to prepare you for something. You see, last Friday, one day after you picked up my trash last week, our refrigerator died. Now, don't worry, I'm not asking you to haul it off.

However, the eggs, mayo, salad dressing, unthawed chicken and hamburger, lunch meat, ice cream, pork sausage, deer jerky, frozen egg rolls, and the rest of our food has been sitting there in the hot garbage can for six days.

I know it's bad. I had to move the cans away from our house this week because we had our windows open and the unpleasant aroma was drifting into our kitchen.

Last night I peeked in... I'm a risk taker and an explorer.
I guess all those flies that were around the can decided to have babies. A lot of little stuff crawing around in there.

Wishing my fridge wouldn't have died, and today was not your day to be on my route,

Travis

Their kid, my kids

My wife likes to read the blog "One Thing."
Tonight she read the most recent post and saw a pic of one of their sons.

Joy said, "Hey, he's cute. Our boys have that same shirt. Their picture is on the fridge."

I grabbed it.


Cute kids... all three.

Plug your ears, Little Johnny!

Tim Stevens in "Pop Goes The Church" gives a few thoughts that parents and children/youth leaders need to read and discuss:

"So rather than prepare our children to engage, discern, and make good choices, we put our hands over their eyes and our fingers in their ears. However, through the internet and news media, the culture was still able to invade our homes. Unfortunately, our kids were ill prepared to deal with it" (page 32, paragraph 1).

Some questions...
1. How can we prepare our children for the culture they live in?

2. At what age do you let them begin to explore pop culture and discern for themselves?

3. How do you establish boundaries with children/teens of what is acceptable, and what is dangerous.

4. How do we make sure our kids don't live in a cultural shelter most of their lives, then step out one day and get slammed by inappropriate culture?

5. How do we safe-guard our children, give them ways to make good choices on their own, and not hide behind the "slippery-slope" argument for abstaining from all culture that could lead them into trouble all at the same time?

I know this is not calling for shallow comments (pretty deep stuff here), but let's see if their is any discussion out there on this...

I've added this post to Water Cooler Wednesday. Check it out here.

Cheers!

Father's Day at First Assembly will be incredible.
Humor. Fun. Video Game Action. Poetry. Comedy. Spirituality.

But I have a big thanks to


The good people of Dad's Root Beer sent us several Father's Day signs for some lobby and stage atmosphere. And they were free!

(And we may have a little surprise to all the guys who join us for Father's Day!)
To that, I say, "Cheers!"

This is a contribution to Positive Post Tuesday by Brody Harper.

You Got City Mugs?

I collect a few Starbucks City Mugs.


I have:
Atlanta
Boston (a)
Boston (b)
California
San Diego
Chicago
Washington DC
Kona
Seattle
Bangkok
Austria

Do you have any?

What? You want to send one to me from your city?
THANKS! You can send it here.
Just make to my attention.